Oh, this is fun for us, and hopefully, a bit of a challenge for you. As you say, it would be hard to go back and change anything… Now – is it better if we guess things, or would you prefer that we just see what happens next? As I think I’ve seen something of a clue… but don’t want to ruin it for anyone…

Well its hard to know Julie. I dont yet consciously know who the killer is but I have to trust that my subconscious will work it out. I do worry I might get consciously distracted by the clues you pick up and head down the wrong path!!

I am, and I couldn’t agree more – that writing by committee would be awful. There are so many things I do and think of intuitively, and if I had to explain them to someone else I’d be lost! This is Anna’s story, and she must follow where it goes, the devil to the rest of us, hahaha. I will refrain from making guesses and will wait (not so patiently) until it comes out and THEN show you all how brilliant I was, hahahahahahaha. I don’t want to influence the story, as I’m sure Anna’s way will be much better. When my husband and I watch mysteries on TV, we guess who did it as soon as we get an idea, but of course, one of the biggest clues is how big an actor is who SEEMS to be in a small role – that’s a dead giveaway… Sticking just to the story is much harder, haha.

Make a note of the clues Julie as I must admit to bwing really curious to see what you have found. This short story is becoming quite long! Another installment soon. I am down at the nuraing home aa dad has sciatica. Busy night here. Someone passed away and there is family everywhere which is lovely actually.
Hope everyone is ok. Cathryne, thinking of you as we haven’t heard from you for a while.
Lovely to here from you Nancy. Hope all is ok with Petey Barbara.
Thinking of you Millie as date for surgery aproaches.

I will, Anna! I’m so sorry about your dad. Sciatica can be miserable. My hubby had it for almost a year before he finally found something that worked. It was deep tissue massage, which of course, hurts like crazy while it’s going on, but does a lot of good. I get it for my neck, which has some bones in it breaking down or something like that, age -related… anyway, for the first 5 times or so, it was agony, but in between the massages, no pain. Now the massage is not painful – I guess we managed to get me used to it or something, and the pain is never around, but if I stop for a month or so, it comes back, so poor me – I’ll have to keep on having massages… Anyway – if that’s available, try it – it took Vern something like 7 massages, once a week, to get rid of it completely, and then he stopped going and it never came back. The massage therapist told him if he’d come in as soon as the sciatic pain had started, it would only have taken two or three sessions.

I’ve been thinking of you, too, Millie – do let us know how it progresses – as soon as you can see to type, of course, hahaha.

Now it was Toni’s turn to frown. She had no indication of there being any risk to the rest of the tour group. The pathologist at the scene had said he was worried about poison to the Inspector but he hadn’t expressed any concern that it might affect anyone else. Toni opted for bland reassurance and then dispatched Therese back to the lounge room while she conferred with her boss. Robbie Fox put in a call to the morgue just in case.
“I have my suspicions but I won’t know for sure until the lab runs a few tests. I have asked them to put a rush on it,” Dr Morgan Ngige explained, “but I don’t think any of the others have cause to worry at this stage.”
“Can you elaborate on your suspicions Chief?”
“Is that a reference to the tribal nature of my native origins which could be construed as a racist remark in certain circles?”
“No. It’s a reference to the fact that you are the Chief pathologist and revered as such. Besides, your native origins have been rooted in Wapping for at least the past five generations if I recall.”
Fox and Morgan both knew that as the only pathologist in the county Ngige often felt he had been shunted to a backwater. His wife, Amelia, had put the sign Chief Pathologist on his door to make him feel better.
Morgan hurumphed. “The victim showed a couple of distinct and unusual signs when I examined her at the scene. Firstly, the muscles in her limbs were almost rigid when I saw her less than an hour after death. Then there was the blood stained froth on her mouth and nostrils indicative of massive pulmonary oedema.”
“In English please Doctor for the sake of us plods.”
“Ms Purdue’s lungs filled with fluid which is usually associated with heart failure. I have already spoken to her local doctor and he saw her only recently. She was in rude good health, with an emphasis on the rude apparently. Heart was fine and she was on no regular medications.”
“And this lead you to conclude?”
“Like I said, I need to get a result from the lab.”
“What did you ask them to look for Morgan? You are holding out on me.”

Thank you for the thoughts and the advice Julie. We did some massage on dad and I had him sit on a tennis ball today to put some pressure on the piriformis muscle. He didn’t have a good day. He was tired, he had a sore jaw and then he got chest pain. We sorted him out and the GP was contacted. He was much better tonight but he is a worry.
Because of all of that the story writing has been a bit challenging. I managed to get some done tonight…I do write best at night but the time is then limited by fatigue. I had to nut out a few technical points. Lots of research in the writing game. Keep suspending belief people and pretend you are watching a Poirot episode or something.
Right bedtime has arrived. I am thinking of you all.

Anna – unless the story-writing is a much-needed distraction, please don’t feel you have to rush to finish it when other things are calling you! I was hoping it was a bit of fun, but that won’t work if you are worrying about the time spent on it. Please take your time – we’ll be here. Hee hee.

Hope your Dad is improved today. I second the idea that you do not need to push yourself to finish the story for us. We all want what is best for you to be first. That said I must comment on the story. I’m loving it! I had wondered if you would bring in anything about Australian First Peoples. Like that you did. I have my idea of who the murder should be but can not nail down a motive without an involved and lengthy story. I am probably overthinking things as I often do. I know you will be able to make it all clear without much too do. Love the “suspend belief” and the Poirot reference. Good thoughts to you.

Thanks for the positive thoughts, ladies. I’m quite calm now about the surgery. They will do my left eye Monday. Got a personal call from my ophthalmologist a few days ago to ask if I was willing to try ‘mono-vision’ lenses. She was going over my chart and thought I was young enough to get used to it. Left eye lens is corrected for midrange, right eye lense is corrected for far range. She said the brain figures out which eye to use to focus. This way I’d only need glasses for reading or computer/pad use depending on how long my arms are. lol! We use the between surgery time to see if I can make it work. I loved the idea and I’m willing to give it a go. She was pleased that I grasped the concept quickly. She said she can’t get some patients to understand at all so they are automatically not good candidates. I said that was a great way to keep the brain active. She laughed. Downside if it works, good possibility my long distance driving days are pretty much over. I said YAY. I really don’t like driving. Never did.
As for computer work, she said we could see later about bifocals to decorrect the far range on the right eye at the top and reading small print on the bottom. Actually, that would work for lots of things: cooking, washing dishes, folding laundry… The real joys of my life – NOT! Necessary though. But I could do needlework again which does give me joy.
BTW Julie, I was so sorry to hear/read about your own eye problems. Love your attitude. I’ve told Mike and our sons not to worry when they see me wearing an eye patch. I’ll be playing pirate for a while.
Sending positive, comforting, warm thoughts to all ye mateys.

Arrrrrggggghhhhh! Avast ye matey – you will have no trouble at all adjusting to the mono-vision lenses, I think! I love the idea – I know what your brain “fills in” by the fact that most people don’t know they have macular degeneration until it’s quite far along, as your brain just compensates. Until you look at that little Amsler grid and see the wavy lines, you think you are seeing things as they really are, and not something your imagination has conjured up! I’ll be thinking of you on Monday! (((((((((Hugs))))))))))

Thinking of you and hoping all goes great on Monday. Being able to see clearly will be wonderful.
You are an inspiration. Life keeps handing you lemons but you don’t just make lemonade as the saying goes. You make a fabulous lemon pie! All the best to you on Monday.

You are a wonderfully positive person Millie and I know you will sail through on Monday….sail being an unexpected pirate reference! I will be thinking of you and sending loads of calming thoughts.
The story is not a burden people. I love having the distraction. Dad is much better today so I can relax a little.
Sorry to disappoint Barbara but Morgan is of African descent. I suspect this story may have an English setting because of the castle reference. They are a little thin on the ground in Australia but there was a very castellic building near where I grew up in the country that was a boys home for a while. On the other point I think you are right. There will be a complex background to this mystery. I mean, Evangeline is annoying but that usually warrants a quick bop on the head in a fit of a rage at having to listen to her droning on about her family or some new complaint. Why the nerve gas? Frankly I have to keep writing as I want to know too!

I’m lost! I type and the moment I press post comment there are a half a dozen new comments above mine. Nerve gas? Are people leaving comments on previous pages? Or was that a reference to what was coming?
Arrrggghhh. ;-)
Anna, loved your sailing reference. You all are wonderful. Oh wait, that sounded Southern, not piratey at all. HeeHee

Well, I am, hahahaha! No, I see what you mean – I haven’t read the last bit yet – but am assuming the very specific symptoms you gave Evangeline must be pointing to nerve gas. So who has access to nerve gas? I’m betting that would be hard to come by these days, hahaha. I am so loving this story!

Morgan sighed. The Inspector was forcing him into the big reveal before he was ready.
“I went to a clinical presentation at a conference a couple of years ago. The mysterious case revolved around a man who committed suicide with a novel and unknown nerve agent. The body was found almost immediately by an assistant who heard a noise as the dying man fell from his chair. The first medics on the scene commented on the stiff limbs and signs of pulmonary oedema. It is not a common set of findings and most nerve agents cause muscles to relax not become rigid. As even you plods know, immediately after death the body is typically in a state of flaccidity. Rigor doesn’t usually set in for at least two hours and even then it affects areas like the eyelids, jaw and neck first. The limbs don’t become involved until later.”
Robbie Fox was thoughtful. “Anything else which could cause the stiffness? Other than this mysterious nerve agent and I need to know more about that in a minute.”
“Bodies exposed to high temperatures, above 65 degrees centigrade, or low temperatures can be rigid at time of death. There is also cadaveric spasm which may occur in the case of some violent deaths. Muscles that were held tightly contracted before death don’t always relax into flaccidity. It is most common in one group of muscles like a hand tightly holding a gun before a suicide, although I have heard that occasionally in traumatic deaths, soldiers who die in war for example, the whole body can spasm. That doesn’t account for the pulmonary oedema. It is the combination that made me wonder.”
“When you say nerve agent, I am presuming you mean something like Sarin, but that isn’t that a gas?”
“Similar idea. Most of the organophosphate based nerve agents are volatile liquids that turn into gases at low temperatures but they are also lethal as liquids, say if they splash onto the skin or are ingested, which is what happened in this case. The effects of ingestion are fairly rapid and the victim was alone with a glass of scotch when he died. The agent was found in the scotch and the victim’s blood. Incidentally the assistant had poured himself a glass of scotch from the same bottle that night and he was fine and tests on the bottle came back negative for toxins. It was, therefore, presumed that the dead man added the agent to the scotch some time after his assistant left the room which was on the second floor of a very secure estate. Nobody else was in the house and the security system was on.”
“The assistant could have done it.”
“The presenter was asked the same question and it turns out the assistant was on his computer chatting via video link to his book club. Six members gave him an alibi for the entire hour preceding the victim’s demise.”
Robbie Fox digested the tale Morgan was spinning. It was a Christiesque locked room mystery. If, as Morgan suspected, a similar agent was responsible for the death of Ms Purdue she had to have ingested it minutes before dying, presumably from her water bottle. The problem was she had been drinking from the bottle all morning with no ill effects and by all accounts she had been seated alone, so how had her bottle been tampered with? And there was another obvious question.
“Where did this mysterious toxin come from?”

Barbara, Julie, you both made me laugh. Barbara, when I was pregnant with my first son I used to bake lemon merengue pies, crust from scratch even, at least once a week! It kept me from getting morning sickness. It’s still my favorite pie. Guess I’ve been practicing finding the bright side to things for a very long time.
Thank you for the laughs, the hugs and holding my hand. I feel loved and surrounded by positivity.

I just finished listening to a fascinating book called “The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabielle Zevin. I was going to listen to one mentioned in The Night is a Strawberry blog, but the sample narration was so bad I looked at the reviews and someone suggested The Storied Life… was a better story. It was published in 2014. Has anyone read it? It has a most unusual point of view, but though odd sounding at first, it works. Several years ago I would have hated the ending, but now I found it very satisfying. It’s about the life of an independent book store owner in a small island up north. He’s a widower who has lost his desire to live, but life conspires to give him many reasons to keep living and in doing so he has a tremendous impact on the little community. I know it isn’t for everyone but it is short and I’d love to know how others felt about it.

I would like to read it but it is not available on kindle in Australia for some reason. The reviews compared it to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which I enjoyed. I am intriguesd and want to read The Storied Life now!

I requested The Storied Life from the Library after reading Millie’s and Anna’s posts. I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society right after it came out and liked it very much. I’ll get right to The Storied Life when it is available.
I’m also glad we discussed Go Set A Watchman. The newspapers actually found space for lengthy articles about Harper Lee. The news seems to consist of politics only so I was a little surprised Lee was given a large amount of space. Deserving though she was.

I was heartened to hear the obituary of Harper Lee on TV that spent very little time on Go Set a Watchman and didn’t talk at all about the controversy surrounding it’s being published. I was so worried that after all her deserving life, she’d be remembered for being a foolish old woman who was talked into something by her publicist. So glad she got the respect she deserved. At least on our TV – haven’t read anything that’s been written, and don’t think I will. I prefer to remember her as a giant among writers.

Louise Penny Newsletter

CountrySorry, you cannot enter at this time.

E-mail

First Name

Last Name

Birth Month

Birth Year

Sign up for the Gamache Series newsletter and Louise Penny author alerts. Privacy Notice.

Please sign me up for the following selected newsletter email(s) with updates and other information about Macmillan Publishers' books, products and services that may be of interest to me. Consent can be withdrawn at any time. The newsletters and/or publishers listed below are all divisions of Macmillan Publishers. See Macmillan Privacy Notice. Contact Us.